Wings of the Great War Allied Powers Military Vehicles

World War I - a time when battle tank manufacturing was in its absolute infancy - offers us but a glimpse of the powerful, versatile, and lethal armored vehicle technology that would rapidly progress before the outbreak of World War II. These early era tanks, to our modern sensibility, are fascinating in their simplicity, though they offered soldiers of the time an opportunity to travel at higher speeds, traverse difficult landscapes, and be equipped with dynamic and mobile weaponry.

The French light infantry tank Renault FT-17 (Renault FT M1917) was probably the most revolutionary tank design for its time. It was the first tank to be equipped with armament in a rotating turret, a seminal design that is still used to this day. Even though the prototype was constructed towards the end of WWI in 1917, more than 3,800 vehicles would eventually be produced.

The British Mark IV "Male" heavy tank was an up-armored version of the Mark I, with all of its fuel stored in a single external tank (located between the rear track horns) in an attempt to improve crew safety. The sponsons could be pushed in to reduce the width of the tank for rail transportation and rails could be carried on the roof to act as an unditching beam.

The "Female" tank was a type of armoured fighting vehicle deployed during the First World War that carried multiple machine guns, instead of the mix of machine guns and cannons mounted by the original Mark I tank.

The Schneider Char d'Assault tank was France's first real attempt at differentiating dedicated tanks from dedicated self-propelled gun systems. Like it's predecessors before it however, the system would never meet its potential due to the design theory of melding a long hull on a short set of tracks.

The Rolls-Royce armoured car was a British armoured car developed in 1914 and used in World War I and in the early part of World War II. The Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) raised the first British armoured car squadron during the First World War.